Manhattan Beach Unified School District continued its strong upswing in standardized test results, improving from fifth to third in the State’s Academic Performance Index (API), a composite measure of student testing results released by the California Department of Education (CDE) last week.
The district raised its overall score from 914 to 926, representing an all-time high for MBUSD and surpassing Palo Alto and Piedmont unified school districts, both of which outscored MBUSD last year.
“It’s nice to come into a district where it is clear they have been doing the right things,” said new Manhattan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews. “We have a good momentum going into this year.”
San Marino and La Cañada unified school districts earned the top two spots in the state again, with scores of 949 and 933, respectively.
The API, which is scored 200 to 1,000, is used to measure compliance with both state standards and federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Both require that all schools reach a score of 800 by 2014.
Mira Costa High School showed the biggest increase in scores, leaping from 872 to 898, a 26 point increase from last year.
“For them to take such a jump is particularly impressive,” said executive director of Educational Services Carolyn Seaton. “If you look at all of our other schools, they’ve all been above 900. Now, our high school is knocking on that door and we’re very excited.”
Seaton said that the biggest improvement in Costa’s scores was in science, where roughly 10 percent of students scored at proficient or advanced levels.
Costa vice principal Jaime Mancilla rescheduled last year’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) so as not to conflict with high school advanced placement testing and alleviate some of the pressure put on AP students who formerly took both tests around the same time.
“Because of the board’s focus and the generous support of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation and our community, our science program has continued to thrive in the midst of statewide economic difficulty,” said MBUSD Board of Trustees president Ida VanderPoorte in a statement.
Pacific Elementary School showed a slight two-point decrease from last year’s scores, while Meadows and Penenekamp elementary schools dipped by 11 and nine points, respectively.
“We’re always concerned if we drop by more than five points,” Seaton said. “But we plan to use [a new data system] to find out why those drops occurred and in what students so we can address those needs.”
Grand View Elementary and Robinson Elementary schools maintained scores of 955 and 965, respectively, from the previous year. Manhattan Beach Middle School increased from 935 to 941.
“We would like to see a gain in all of our schools,” Seaton said. “But it is more difficult to maintain growth the higher the scores are.”
All seven MBUSD schools met Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, based on performance in four areas: 95 percent testing participation rate, API scores, proficiency in English/Language Arts and Math, and graduation rates.
“With our new data system, Illuminate, we will be able to dig deeper into these results,” Matthews said. “Unlike in past years, we will be able to break apart the data and see specifically where we can improve.” ER
